THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF BIRDS 



found great lamentation. More than five thousand 

 Pheasants had been swept away by disease within 

 a few weeks. Is it going too far to say that the gun- 

 men and trappers had overdone their work? So 

 few Hawks or Owls or foxes had been left to capture 

 the birds first afflicted, that these had been per- 

 mitted to associate with their kind and to pass on 

 weakness and disease to their offspring until the 

 general health tone of the whole Pheasant commun- 

 ity had become lowered. In the end five-sixths of 

 the birds had succumbed to the devastations of 

 disease. 



All birds have their part to play in the great econ- 

 omy of the earth, and it is a dangerous experiment to 

 upset the balance of Nature. 



[119] 



